This invention relates to a digital case for contact lenses. In particular, the invention relates to a digital case for disposable contact lenses.
Disposable contact lenses are stored in contact lens cases that are incapable of displaying the number of days a pair of contact lenses has been used. This is true even though wearers of disposable contact lenses are instructed to dispose of each pair of contact lenses after a stated number of days of use. Wearers are warned that use of a pair of contact lenses for more than the stated number of days of use (which may be 7, 14 or 30 days or another number of days, depending on the brand) may increase the risk of eye infection. For this reason, disposable contact lens wearers who desire to protect their eyes often throw away their contact lenses after 7, 14 or 30 calendar days, even in situations in which the contact lenses are not used every day.
Other contact lens wearers have trouble remembering when their 7, 14 or 30 days of use have occurred. These wearers do not err on the side of safety and throw away their contacts early. Rather, they err on the side of economy and wear their contact lenses for days (even weeks) past the expiration date of the contact lenses.
Thus, some wearers of disposable contact lenses that use background art contact lens cases dispose of their contact lenses too late and face the risk of experiencing eye infections. Other wearers of disposable contact lenses dispose of their contact lenses too early and waste a portion of the purchase price of each pair of contact lenses. What is needed is a solution to these two problems.
The background art is characterized by U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,649,753; 4,909,382; 5,280,834; 5,328,597; 5,356,012; 5,377,614; 5,452,792; 5,699,900; 5,954,225; 6,038,997 and 6,382,409; the disclosures of which patents are incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein. None of these documents disclose a practical solution to the problem of tracking contact lens use. Background art use tracking contact lens cases require the contact lens wearer to physically advance (and remember to advance) a counter element that indicates to the wearer how many days he has used his contact lenses. Background art use tracking contact lens cases also comprise counters with moving parts and thus are not suitable for use in a bathroom environment in which water is likely to cause failures.